What is Your BMI and How to Calculate It

A persons body mass index, usually referred to as BMI, is a measurement of their weight in relation to their height. This number can be calculated by taking your weight in pounds multiplied by 703 divided by height (squared) in inches.

Weight (lbs) * 703 / height ² (inches)

I’m 170lbs and 5’11” tall, which is 71 inches. Here’s how I would calculate my BMI.

170 * 703 = 119,510
71 * 71 = 5041
119,510 / 5041 = 23.7 BMI

Make sense?

If not, just use this calculator 😉

Here’s what your BMI number means:

  • Less than 16 – severely underweight
  • 16-20 – Underweight
  • 20-25 – Normal
  • 25-30 – Overweight
  • 30 or more – Obese

*image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/169393296/

Why You Shouldn’t Get a Gym Membership In January

The gym
Creative Commons License photo credit: Ms. Phoenix

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to get in shape and that plan includes getting a gym membership for the first time, take a step back and think hard about this. Make sure you’re making the right decision.

First, make sure you don’t lock yourself into a contract. Most gyms these days will sign you up on a month-by-month basis, but there are still plenty of gyms that will lock you into a 1-3 year contract. Do NOT sign up for this. Bally’s screwed me into a 3 year contract, so I know all too well how it feels. I actually went about 5 days per week for 1.5 years, but then I didn’t feel like going there anymore. The equipment started to feel old and poorly maintained (at least at the Bally’s I was going to) and it was too crowded for my liking, so I bought all my own equipment and started working out from home. I paid for the last half of the contract and I didn’t even go there anymore. What a waste!

Another reason you don’t want to get locked into a contract is because many people who sign up as a result of a New Year’s resolution, go to the gym for a couple of weeks and then decide it’s not for them – before the end of the month is even up. Then they’re stuck paying for it the rest of the year.

Gyms are also really crowded in January, which is frustrating for everyone, but gives the wrong impression to newcomers, possibly putting them off. For all of these reasons, I suggest working out at home for a few weeks to see if it’s something you really think you’re going to stick with. If so, sign up for a monthly membership in February.

I also want to give you one very important tip to help you really stick with your goals for getting in shape.

In my opinion, the most important thing someone new to fitness needs to know, is what their routine is going to be. I’ve seen this so many times it isn’t even funny. People will sign up for a gym membership, mess around on a few machines for a 30 minutes and then go home. You’ll see them go from bench press to dips to treadmill to shoulder press to leg abductions, etc. That’s not a routine with clear goals in mind.

If you need a routine, search for one on Bodybuilding.com or go pick up the latest issue of Men’s Fitness or Muscle and Fitness (my two favorites). There are also plenty of smartphone apps, such as iFitness on the iPhone. If you’re starting at home and don’t have any equipment, do some searches for a bodyweight routine online, like this one. You can also get some resistance bands for pretty cheap which can replace weights for tons of exercises.

Take the routine with you to the gym, along with a notepad, and track your progress. Track how much weight you lifted and how many reps for each exercise. That way you can go back the next week and know if you need to raise or lower your weights. A specific routine is key to maintaining your fitness goals.

Good Luck!

ExRx is One of My Favorite Bodybuilding Websites

I just wanted put up a quick post about one of my favorite exercise/fitness websites because I find myself coming back to it all the time and thought it would be helpful to others. The site is ExRx.net or “Exercise Prescription.”

ExRx has lots of useful information about all areas of bodybuilding and fitness, but I use it solely for one reason – to quickly look up any exercise for proper form and execution.

I have a very hard time sticking with one routine for longer than a couple months, so I often use routines from Muscle and Fitness, Mens Fitness, Flex or I put one of my routines together. There are just so many exercises available that sometimes I don’t remember exactly what the move is or what the proper form is, and this is where ExRx excels.

You can look up just about any exercise you can possibly think of and the great thing about it is that for every move, they have a small GIF video showing how to do it. One of the things I hate most when I’m trying to figure out how to do a specific move is going to YouTube and watching a 5 minute video of how to do a simple exercise that should only take 20 seconds to explain.

They also list instructions such as preparation, execution and any additional comments on performing the move correctly.

You can search their directory for exercises that target very specific muscles so you can even put together a highly targeted workout routine.

There is one thing I don’t like about the site though and that’s they don’t have an easily accessible search feature. On some of the pages, they list a search link in the footer of the page, but not on all and if you want to search only the exercise directory, you have to use their Search Exercise page. I just wish the search feature was built into the site in a more easily accessible place.

ExRx is not a beautiful site by any means, but I think the simpleness of the design makes it easy to use and more importantly, fast. It’s for all the reasons in this post that I suggest you add ExRx.net to your bookmarks.

Using an Exercise Ball Instead of a Work Chair

I had an exercise ball that I purchased about a year ago, which I used at work everyday in place of a normal work chair. Sitting on an exercise ball has done wonders for my back. I’ve always had back problems, but sitting on an exercise ball has definitely strengthened the muscles in my lower back and core.

I’ve become so accustomed to it, that I don’t even like sitting in an office chair anymore, something I’ve been doing for the past week after my old ball sprung a leak. The leak was no fault of the manufacturer, but of my carelessness. I rolled the ball under my desk and it caught on a protruding piece of wood which tore the outer layer of the ball. It was only a matter of time before the remaining rubber gave away.

Luckily the leak started as a little hole and didn’t result in a full blown explosion landing me on the floor with a cup of water in my hands. That’s the scenario I had in my head every time I thought about how it would happen.

Anyway, I just got a nice new exercise ball from Gaiam in the mail the other day and it’s so nice that I decided to take it home to use for exercise and bring in my home exercise ball to use at work instead 😀

The Gaiam Total Body Balanceball actually came in a kit which included a latex resistance band and a workout DVD, so I thought it would be fun to watch the video and take pictures of the workout. Check it out below.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”2″ bgcolor=”ffffff” gallery_width =”100%” gallery_height =”500″]

There are a several workouts on the DVD, all of which are actually a lot of fun. The resistance band that comes in the kit is too light for me, but the workout felt good. A heavier resistance band would intensify the workout quite a bit, so that’s what I’ll use next time.

Exercise Can Make You Feel Full

You may have recently read one of my latest posts about how water can help you lose weight, with one theory being that it controls hunger by leaving you feeling full. Well as it turns out, a new study led by researchers at the University of Campinas in Brazil shows that exercise can do the same thing. The study shows that exercise restores the sensitivity of the neurons that help control satiety, which leads to a reduction in food intake and eventually weight loss.

It has been suggested by health experts that the neurons that control satiety in the brain send failed signals to the hypothalamus when a person consumes excessive amounts of fat. This results in uncontrollable food intake and obesity in more than 40 million people in the U.S. alone.

The subjects of the study, obese rodents, showed a decreased intake of food after exercise, due to signals of restored satiety in the neurons controlling their hunger. For a more scientific reason, the study showed that exercise increased IL-6 and IL-10 proteins levels in the brain, which increase sensitivity of the insulin and leptin hormones. These hormones control appetite.

This study shows just how important it is to include regular exercise into your daily life. Controlling both your satiety and burning calories is key to beating and/or preventing obesity.

Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100824171614.htm
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000465

Why You Need to Reach a Anabolic State to Build Muscle

Your body is in constant changes of anabolic and catabolic states. An anabolic state describes the process of building and repairing muscle tissue while a catabolic state is the process of breaking it down. An anabolic state is necessary to see huge gains and the body you desire but a catabolic state will instead break down your muscle tissue – something you don’t want to happen.

An anabolic state is created by combining healthy nutrition, proper training and rest.

You can achieve an anabolic state by watching your diet and the types of foods you eat. If you’re trying to gain mass, it’s still important that you eat healthy, even if your calorie intake is high. If you’re trying to drop weight and cut fat from your body, it’s even more important that you eat appropriately. You need to provide your body with the nutrients it needs to repair itself and starving yourself to reach calorie goals isn’t the way to do it.

You never want to reach a negative caloric balance or your body will go into a catabolic state. This is where your body will go into conservation mode, breaking down muscle tissue for energy. To help muscle tissue recover, eat meals every 2-3 hours which contain protein, especially in the morning after your body has been starved for 8-10 hours. You should consume approximately 18-22 calories per pound of body weight per day. Eating every 2-3 hours sounds like a lot of food but when you break the meals down into smaller portions, it’s much easier. You can eat three large meals per day too, as long as you aren’t starving between meals. Calculate your daily calorie intake and prepare a meal plan to keep yourself on track.

In addition to eating healthy, you also need to understand the limits of training you can place on your body. If you undertrain, you won’t see the gains that you’re hoping for, but at least you aren’t causing your body harm. If you overtrain on the other hand, you cause more damage to your muscle tissue, which will take your body longer to repair. If you train too hard, you never give your muscle tissue a chance to heal.

It’s common to workout anywhere from 20 minutes to 60 minutes, but a workout shouldn’t last longer than 90 minutes total. If you workout longer than 60 minutes, it’s extremely important that you have been eating properly and are drinking plenty of water (at least 8 cups per day). If you are doing intense workouts such as Insanity, you might even consider consuming 120oz of water per day, which is about 15 cups of water.

Lastly, you need to give your body enough rest. This goes hand-in-hand with training. When you workout, aerobic (cardio) or anaerobic (weightlifting), you cause tiny tears in your muscles. These tears can only be repaired by resting them. This is why you should workout different muscle groups throughout the week. It’s common to allow at least 72 hours before working out the same muscle group again. If you have accidentally overtrained, you may need to give your body even more time to recover.

Prevent your body from reaching a catabolic state by taking the proper precautions. Eat healthy and regularly to prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue, don’t overtrain and make sure that you give your body enough rest to recover fully. By preventing a catabolic state, you’ll see the gains you’ve been working so hard for.

Guinness World Record For Most Weight Squat Lifted in 24 Hours

shaun-jones-world-record

On March 22, 2009 Shaun Jones had began his attempt to be the first man ever to squat lift more than 1 million lbs. within a 24 hour period. He had trained for 6 years to take on this attempt and he completely demolished it.

In order to qualify as a Guinness World Record achievement he had to lift more than 122,624 lbs. but that was no problem for Mr. Jones. When the log books were totaled, it was announced that Jones had lifted 1,013,350 lbs and 6 oz. within the 24 hour period. Even more amazing is that the record was achieved on Shaun’s 50th birthday. Now that’s quite an accomplishment. I bet his legs were sore the next day!

Check out some video below.

The Murph: An Extreme Crossfit Bodyweight Workout

I did a Crossfit workout this morning, dubbed the “Murph” named after Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. According to the post on the Crossfit website, this was one of Michaels favorite workouts and after doing it this morning I can see why.

This workout absolutely kicked my ass.

You can complete this workout in sets or partition it as you like, but you do need to start with the 1 mile run and then end with a 1 mile run. The squats are body weight only although it is suggested that you wear a weighted vest if you have one, which I don’t.

1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run

I did only traditional push-ups and traditional pull-ups with no variations for this one and partitioned this workout in a way that worked for me. I did all of my pull-ups first and did them in increments of 15 and then down to 10’s for the last 40.

Then I started the push-ups and squats as sets together. I did 20 push-ups, then 30-50 squats and rested for 30-60 seconds and repeated. After about 100 push-ups, I had to slow down to about 10 push-ups each set.

To be honest, I couldn’t even finish this workout. I did my first mile run, all of the push-ups, pull-ups and squats, but on the final run I got a terrible cramp in my side that just wouldn’t go away. I was about .3 miles into the final run. Maybe next time…

If you’ve done any of the P90X workouts, this session probably looks very familiar. The Chest and Back video is basically all pull-ups and push-ups, although the styles vary.

I completed (for the most part) the “Murph” in approximately 1 hour and 12 minutes.

iFitness Exercise App for the iPhone

ifitness-screenshots

UPDATE: It looks like the iFitness app is no longer available on the app store, but a couple readers have mentioned a great app called All-in-Fitness, which looks very similar, and even better than iFitness.


I don’t have any other fitness/workout apps on my iPhone so I can’t really compare iFitness to anything else, but the reason I downloaded it is because I always hear everyone talking about it. I finally read the reviews and app description and thought it sounded like it was definitely worth $2 and after playing around with it, I love it.

There are a ton of exercises here to choose from. If you’re at the gym and just need some ideas, you can choose which body part you want to work on and then pick from a variety of exercises. Each exercise has a picture, a complete description of how to perform the exercise and even a video if you need more instruction.

You can also choose exercises based on specific muscle groups or even by equipment needed. If there are any exercises you know that aren’t listed, you can add your own, complete with a descriptions and picture if you want.

One of my favorite features of the app is being able to create my own routines. You can name your workout whatever you’d like and then add any exercises from the app to the routine. And while you’re working out you can note how much weight you did for each exercise, how many reps, the date and any additional notes you want to put down. This is all logged in the app eventually makes up a graph showing your progress.

ifitness-logging

If you’re just a beginner and don’t know how to build your own routine, iFitness also has 12 routines already built in, such as a beginners program, a weight loss routine, a business travel workout and even an expert golf routine.

On top of all that, they’ve also included a weight monitor, BMI calculator and body measurement tracking. The developers also take suggestions, such as feature, exercise and routine requests and eventually include them in regular updates.

This is definitely one app I’d recommend to anyone who cares about their physical health.

Healthy, Organic and Eco-Friendly Valentines Day Gifts

Valentines Day is right around the corner and if you haven’t picked up anything yet, you better get a move on. I did some searching around for for healthy, organic and eco-friendly items that your girl will love and I find just about all of it on Amazon (affiliate links) so you can find everything you need in one place. If you have more gift ideas, please add them to the comments.

juice-beauty-organics

Juice Beauty Organics to Go

Women love things that make them look and feel younger and products that make their skin softer and healthier. This organic skincare set from Juice Beauty has six different products designed to do just that.

jasmine-perfume

Perfume

Just like women like to look good, they like to smell good too. If your girl likes perfume, check out some of the “Green” products from Florascent, such as their Jasmine Perfume. At $98.95, it’s a bit expensive, but I’m sure she’ll love it. They also have several other smells if you don’t like Jasmine.

deep-steep-tea-bath

Relaxing Baths

After a long day at work, there’s nothing more relaxing than sliding into a nice hot bath. Deep Steep makes Bath Tea in several scents such as Rosemary Mint, Honeydew Spearmint and Grapefruit Bergamot. Make it even more special by preparing the bath for her and pouring her a glass of wine.

global-giving-roses

Flowers

Roses are the the first thing to come to mind when buying gifts for Valentines Day and Amazon has an assortment of eco-friendly roses that with each purchase, a 5% donation is giving to the the Global Giving project, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, or the Ploughshares Fund. They also carry some Blue Iris if you’re not into roses where donations go to Keep America Beautiful.

relaxing-spa

Spa Treatment

Give your girl a special day of relaxing massages and facials by buying her a gift certificate at a local spa. SpaFinder lists several types of spas in any location and you can book directly from the site so this would be a great one if you’re running short on time.

pink-stuffed-animal

Stuffed Animals

My girlfriend loves stuffed animals and there are quite a few cute and eco-friendly plushes here. And if you can find one big enough, she’ll love to cuddle with it or use it as a pillow. Sadly, it seems like no matter what my dogs always find a way to get ahold of them.

love-bug-sugar-free-basket

Chocolates

If you’re trying to live a healthier lifestyle you definitely shouldn’t be eating candy, but sugar-free chocolates would make a great gift. Check out the Love Bug sugar-free Valentines Day gift basket or this one; the Sugar Free Heart Valentines Gift Basket With Bear. Be careful you don’t have the type of girl that could take this the wrong way though!

wine

Wine

One glass a day of red wine is a rich source of antioxidants and has been known to have plenty of healthy benefits such as boosting immunity, helping to prevent bone loss and is good for the heart. Wine is also very romantic, especially if you cook her a nice dinner to go with it. My favorite place to look for good deals on wine is Wine.Woot. They update the site frequently (every few days or so) so check often to find the wines you really want.